A typical network for corporate computing environments may be one or more local area networks (LANs). One example of a network may be illustrated in FIG. 1 as comprising a host system 12 which contains at least one processor and a plurality of network devices 16, 18, 20. The host system 12 and the network devices 16, 18, 20 may be servers, workstations, desktops and mobile personal computers (PCs) or other types of communication devices connected on the network 10. The host system 12 may contain one or more console control programs such as the popular Enterprise management console software 14, and may serve as an Enterprise management console for providing centralized enterprise management solutions. The Enterprise management console software 14 may be provided by different vendors, such as, for example, Hewlett Packard (HP) OpenView Network Node Manager (NNM).RTM., Computer Associates (CA) Unicenter TNG Framework.RTM., Intel LANDesk Server Manager.RTM. (LDSM), Intel LANDesk Client Manager.RTM. (LDCM), and IBM Tivoli Netview.RTM..
Each Enterprise management console software 14 may be used to allow the network administrator at the host system 12 to centralize operations of the various network devices 16, 18, 20 on the network 10, such as to discover and map all network devices 16, 18, 20 on the network 10 and display the correct device icons (graphical representations) in the network map for remote management of network devices 16, 18, 20 on the network 10. Device (or LAN) management applications (or applets) may be installed at the host system 12 for allowing the network administrator to actually manage operations of the various network devices 16, 18, 20 on the network 10, such as to remote control, reset and restoration, and to perform diagnostics, inventory, monitoring and emergency-management recovery. Examples of such device management applications (applets) include System Management Module (SMM) applets, Intel Server Control (ISC) applets, Remote Diagnostics applets, and Cluster applets, known as "Concord." Many device management applications for PCs and servers may also be provided by Intel LANDesk Server Manager.RTM. (LDSM), Intel LANDesk Client Manager.RTM. (LDCM) and related Intel LANDesk family of products which may be available to the network administrator to monitor PC health such as conditions of any disk drive, memory, fan, temperature, voltage, chassis, boot process, to review system inventory, to power on, off and reboot remote PCs on the network, and to monitor server functions over the network. However, these device management applications must be plugged-in and arduously integrated into the popular Enterprise management console software 14 using one of HP OpenView, CA Unicenter, Intel LDSM/LDCM, and IBM Tivoli before launching for remote management operations on the network 10.
One common solution to application integration may be to write new console integration code for every application-console pair existed on the network. This may be necessary because the device management applications and the Enterprise management console software may be manufactured by different commercial vendors such as HP, CA, Intel, and IBM with different, and often times not compatible software architecture and/or language. For example, if the network contains an Enterprise management console using a HP OpenView, and a device management application such as a SMM Applet needs to be integrated for remote management operations, a new console integration code must be written in accordance with HP OpenView specification in order to integrate such a SMM Applet into the HP OpenView console. Subsequently, if another Enterprise management console using a different enterprise management application such as CA Unicenter is available on the network, then another console integration code must be written in accordance with CA Unicenter specification in order to integrate the same SMM Applet into the CA Unicenter console. Consequently, new console integration code must be written to integrate a specific device management application for each of different Enterprise management console software on the network. These requirements and the time and expenditure of software engineering required to customize individual device management applications to operate in conjunction with diverse Enterprise management consoles on the network can be substantial both in cost and labor. Especially considering the fact that there can be hundreds or even thousands of different possible configurations.
Therefore, there is an urgent need for comprehensive generic and extensible interface solutions for automating integration of device management applications (applets) into existing multiple Enterprise management console software installed at a host system for centralized remote device management operations over a network.